"[Rhetorical techniques can enhance your expression, making your language more vivid, lively, and concise. They can transform the mundane into the lively, the complex into the clear, and the tedious into the simple. Good use of rhetorical techniques will make your language more pleasing. Please use the rhetorical technique of metaphor in your speech within the next 24 hours. Reward: You will be able to double the volume of your speech.]"

The 'You Smile When You See Me' skill turned out to be passive.

When Lin Bai was happy, the people around him couldn't help but smile, regardless of whether they were sad or angry.

Currently, Lin Bai hadn't found any use for this skill.

However, the reward for the next task was somewhat terrifying and, moreover, quite practical: Double Volume.

This wasn't just about turning him into a human megaphone.

As long as the volume of his speech was loud enough, this skill could completely transform him into a humanoid walking cannon.

To put it one way, an average person's normal speaking volume is around 40 decibels, and the maximum a human can shout is about 100 decibels.

Two hundred decibels, however, is roughly equivalent to the sound produced by a nuclear explosion.

This meant that if Lin Bai raised his voice, and it was then doubled, he could deafen everyone around him.

If he augmented his voice with Spiritual Power or Inner Strength, he could, to some extent, kill people with the concussive force or even tear them apart with sound waves...

In the movie "Kung Fu," Little Dragon Girl used a giant bell and her Lion's Roar technique to unleash a fierce wind, shattering doors and windows, to defeat the Evil God. Doubled voice volume was far more terrifying than her Lion's Roar.

Moreover, sound waves were an area-of-effect attack; as long as he had a voice, it was a more potent offensive method than the Lightning Storm released by the recording pen.

I never expected my most significant attack Skill to come from the Great Language System, Lin Bai thought, quietly pleased. The decision not to give up on any task was indeed the right one. With so many Systems, you never know what kind of powerful rewards they might offer!

As for the metaphors required by the task, he could come up with them easily.

Lin Bai didn't know what the ultimate reward from the Great Language System would be, but if he continued like this, becoming a writer if he ever returned to Earth probably wouldn't be a problem.

「 」

"Alliance Hierarch, do we need to discuss any strategies in advance?" Ge Feiyun, seeing Lin Bai had resumed his normal way of speaking, stepped forward and asked, "The Morning Yuan Sword Sect is fighting on their home turf, and the Medicine King Valley is providing them with Pill Medicine. If we make one wrong move, we're likely to suffer casualties."

"Valley Master Ge, even if I were to devise a strategy as flawless as a seamless heavenly robe, would you all obey the arrangements as diligently as worker bees collecting nectar?" Lin Bai looked at Ge Feiyun and asked with a smile. His offensive options are too few, and the reward of doubled voice volume is too tempting, he thought, eager to start the new task.

The rhetorical technique of metaphor hardly affected daily communication.

He had been a master of sentence construction back in elementary school; speaking this way was too easy!

「 」

Diligent worker bees collecting nectar? What on earth? Ge Feiyun was puzzled, but she understood the meaning Lin Bai intended to convey. Affected by his skill, she couldn't help but smile. "Alliance Hierarch, what are you saying? We and those sanctimonious righteous sects are natural enemies. Now that we finally have a chance to annihilate them, we will naturally do our utmost."

Damn it! Their smiles are useless now. I can't judge their true intentions from their expressions anymore! This blasted skill! Can't it link with the Emotional System to determine if I'm genuinely happy or just faking it? I only smiled out of habit, how did you decide I was in a happy state?

Sweeping his gaze around at the sea of sincere-looking smiles, Lin Bai wiped the smile from his own face and said gravely, "It seems I've misjudged noble people by my own mean standards. I will be like a soaring eagle, swooping down from the heavens to show those rabbit-like opponents the power of the Rules. You all just need to be like turtles, retract your heads into your shells, and protect yourselves."

"..."

Ge Feiyun was speechless.

Xin Shang and the others simultaneously gave Lin Bai strange looks.

What eagle? What turtle? What is this guy up to now? Can't he speak normally?

"Alliance Hierarch, has your Spoken Law Follows improved again?" Xin Shang asked tentatively.

"Sect Leader Xin, you are as astute as a bear emerging from hibernation in search of food," Lin Bai said, giving Xin Shang a thumbs-up, an involuntary smile appearing on his face.

Compared to a bear. Xin Shang's expression had just darkened, but as Lin Bai's smile bloomed, he too found himself smiling.

The uncontrollable smile finally made Xin Shang realize something was wrong. This isn't anything to be happy about, so why am I smiling?

But when he saw everyone around Lin Bai wearing the exact same smile, a hair-raising sensation washed over him.

He tried to stop smiling, but the muscles in his face seemed frozen, refusing to change his expression no matter how hard he tried.

Damn it! What in the world happened? Xin Shang felt like he was going mad.

He had thought he was gradually adapting to Lin Bai's unhinged antics. But now, finding he couldn't even control his own smile, the terror in his heart threatened to overwhelm him. When the hell did I fall for this?

[Fear +1 from Xin Shang, Ge Feiyun, Zhao Tulong, Qing Yu, Dao Xu...]

Everyone wore smiles, yet the emotion they conveyed was fear. Lin Bai looked around, sighed inexplicably, and then, well, he couldn't help but smile again.

The tone of this damn game is getting more and more warped because of me, he thought. If this keeps up, I'll end up with no friends, walking further down the path of a lonely recluse.

"Alliance Hierarch, our smiles...?" When Lin Bai's smile vanished, Xin Shang regained control of his facial expressions. Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, he asked tentatively.

"My Cultivation of Rules is like a rocket soaring into the sky; I've taken a great leap forward on the path to becoming the Heavenly Dao. My influence on you now is like the sun's on all creation: when the sun rises, all things awaken; when the sun sets, all things rest," Lin Bai announced proudly, surveying the crowd. "Naturally, you shouldn't be frightened like little white rabbits seeing a big bad wolf. You should become accustomed to my influence on you, just as you are accustomed to the spring breeze caressing the land. When I one day embody the Heavenly Dao, the world will settle into a peace as serene as snow falling from the sky."

"..." Xin Shang listened to this long string of headache-inducing metaphors, struggling for a long moment to decipher what Lin Bai was saying. He swallowed hard and asked, "Alliance Hierarch, do you mean that as your Spoken Law Follows has advanced, your smile now affects everyone around you?"

"Your understanding is like freshly boiled water—it's finally bubbling to the surface!" Lin Bai gave another thumbs-up, the corners of his mouth turning upwards.

"..."

Xin Shang, Ge Feiyun, and the others exchanged glances, looking at the identical, cookie-cutter smiles plastered on each other's faces, feeling like crying but having no tears. If anyone dares to say the Rules aren't real, I'll fight them to the death! To think that this is how one cultivates the Rules... No wonder no one has mastered it in tens of thousands of years! But for the Righteous Door to find a method to cultivate the Rules, there probably isn't a single sane person among them! What in the world is all this?

Damn it all! Will some mighty expert please come and put this madman out of his misery! I can't take this anymore!

Two streams of clear tears rolled down Dao Xu's cheeks. He loathed Lin Bai to death, yet he was still affected by Lin Bai's influence, an unconscious smile playing on his lips. He was truly about to break down.

If I had known I'd end up in this state, I would have abandoned my temple and fled long ago, no matter the cost...

「 」

"When I smile, everyone else smiles. But it has no other effect on you; those things are as unrelated to this as chalk to cheese," Lin Bai explained, his face serious.

I really need to change this overly friendly way I interact with people, he thought. Even though everyone is smiling at me, seeing them all with the exact same smile... never mind how they feel, even from my perspective, it's quite unsettling!

"Qi, your master isn't usually like this, is he?" Hu He asked, looking worriedly at Lin Bai's retreating figure.

"No," Little White Fox blinked a few times and said. "He doesn't normally practice Spoken Law Follows this frequently. It must be because a big battle is imminent, and he needs to deepen his cultivation! Mother, you'll get used to it. This is actually mild. Back when Master was cultivating the Path of Anger, he would lash out at anyone and everyone!"

"..." Hu He was speechless.

「 」

"Awesome!"

"Right now, only 'Holy crap!' can express how I feel. The game designer who came up with this cultivation method must have holes in their brain!"

"As long as Lin, the Storekeeper, is around, this game will never die."

"I've seen countless NPCs, but Lin, the Storekeeper, is still the most flamboyant!"

"Even actual psychos aren't as entertaining as him. Nobody can imitate the temperament of Lin, the Storekeeper. I just love it when he's dead serious about cultivating Spoken Law Follows."

"Excuse me, what makes you think Lin, the Storekeeper, *isn't* a psycho?"

"I really hope Lin, the Storekeeper, doesn't get defeated. He's become my source of joy, my database of knowledge! If Lin, the Storekeeper, falls, I don't know what meaning life would have anymore!"

"To the person above, I get the joy part, but what can you possibly learn from Lin, the Storekeeper?"

"I've learned his brilliant use of language, his thick skin. Ever since I started following Lin, the Storekeeper, my salary went up, I found a girlfriend, and I'm never short of words for my essays anymore!"

"Still writing essays? If you actually dared to use those terrible metaphors of Lin, the Storekeeper, on a test, your teacher would give you a zero for sure."

"My admiration for Lin, the Storekeeper, is like a hydrogen balloon released by the kid next door—it's freaking soared to the heavens!"

"My affection for Lin, the Storekeeper, is like my love for the pies handmade by the pretty widow next door; I look forward to it every single day."

"All you Heavenly Dao candidates here are outstanding, but you're all just sidekicks for Lin, the Storekeeper, like a few teacups accompanying a teapot..."

"Are you guys only focused on Lin, the Storekeeper's, metaphors? Haven't you thought about his smile?"

"His smile is as sweet and adorable as Technician No. 1 from Red Romance Parlor."

"Get outta here! Lin, the Storekeeper's, smile doesn't just affect NPCs, it affects Players too! Don't you find that strange?"

"Not strange, terrifying! It was fun at first, but when everyone on the livestream started showing the exact same smile, it felt like watching a horror movie. It was incredibly unsettling, to say the least."

"That's not what I meant. I'm asking, is it normal for mental-type Skills to affect Players?"

"NPC Skills can kill Players, so why can't mental Skills affect Players?"

"The bodies we use in the game belong to the game company, but the minds controlling those bodies are ours. Theoretically, our characters should only cry if we want them to cry, and laugh if we want them to laugh. But now? We can't even control their smiles! Don't you find that terrifying? It means the game company can control our minds!"

"You're overthinking it. The game company doesn't need to control our minds. They just need to control the in-game bodies and make those bodies show a smiling expression. Xin Shang and the others were smiling along with Lin, the Storekeeper, but they still had their own thoughts!"

"Exactly! Stop spreading conspiracy theories. When you're playing, you're lying in a game pod. If the game company wanted to kill you, it would be far too easy; they wouldn't need to go to such elaborate lengths..."

"Life is short; seize the day. Instead of worrying about things that may or may not be true, shouldn't we be more concerned about when the game company will release the next batch of accounts? I can't wait to join the Beggar Gang."

「 」

The Lonely Old Man constantly monitored the overall development of the situation.

He alternated between watching videos from Players in the Morning Yuan Sword Sect camp and observing the attitude of peripheral Players towards the Justice League, managing the bigger picture and orchestrating the Beggar Gang's operations.

Coordinating a large, 3,000-person faction wasn't easy. He had to ensure the healthy development of the Beggar Gang, protect the interests of their advertising sponsors, and make the upcoming major battle as exciting as possible—not like last time, when Lin Bai resolved everything before the Players even had a chance to show their faces.

The Beggar Gang seemed to make a lot of money, but that money wasn't easy to earn.

So, when He Qin and his group expelled the Players and discussed strategies behind closed doors; when the existence of the Transformation Pill was revealed, and the Beast Control Sect drove tens of thousands of Demon Beasts to reinforce the Morning Yuan Sword Sect; when Tang Lanling and her contingent used Players as messengers to seek help from the Seven Major Righteous Sects, and various other matters began to pile up—the Lonely Old Man was pleased.

This was because it all signified variables, and with variables, the battle would be exciting.

Otherwise, if only Lin, the Storekeeper, was allowed to shine, the Beggar Gang would eventually fade into obscurity.

Lin, the Storekeeper, was too shrewd; other NPCs seemed like wooden puppets in comparison. It was only because the Lonely Old Man was currently benefiting from Lin Bai that he hadn't thrown his lot in with other Sects. If he had joined another Sect, witnessed the brilliance of Lin, the Storekeeper, and saw his own faction's NPCs being used as mere background props by Lin Bai, he would have deleted his account and quit the game long ago.

However, when the Lonely Old Man saw that Lin Bai's smile could affect Players, he couldn't help but sigh silently.

Lin Bai was growing too quickly.

Although Players were trying hard to rationalize things for the game, there were many intelligent people among them. Lin Bai's Skills could affect reality; the truth that the 'game world' was actually a real world probably couldn't be concealed for much longer.

During the two days Lin Bai had been away, Crispy Rice had almost completely ignored the Beggar Gang's affairs, holing himself up in the City Lord's Mansion, even neglecting his girlfriend, Sticky Rice.

While Lin Bai was on his expedition, the Lonely Old Man had spent some effort investigating the game company's background, personnel structure, and so on, but had found nothing.

As for the game's publishing license number, one could be found. But given the official game company's technical prowess, obtaining copyright certificates, publishing license numbers, and similar credentials was all too easy and hardly surprising.

Perhaps the trouble wasn't limited to the Players within the game, but extended to the real world as well. The game "Immortal World" had only been out for two or three months, yet it was already subtly influencing various industries!

The Lonely Old Man sighed once more, wondering what kind of turmoil would erupt in the real world when everything finally came to light...